1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus having a framework and a printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Open Services Gateway initiative (OSGi) Alliance advocates an OSGi framework as a framework for managing a life cycle of an application, such as execution start/stop of the application. In the OSGi framework, an application format is prescribed as ajar file in a Java compression format. The jar file is created by collecting a plurality of class files into one file as an archive. Further, the jar file includes a MANIFEST.MF file having a description of the jar file. With a description of an attribute of an OSGi specification to the manifest file, the OSGi framework manages the life cycle of the application according to the described attribute.
In an image forming apparatus, it is attempted to install the application externally and load the application. Further another image forming apparatus loaded with a system in conformity with the above described OSGi framework is widespread. Moreover, another image forming apparatus appears in which not only the attribute of the OSGi specification but also a unique attribute is defined and extended to the manifest file.
The presence or absence of an available function and a hard disk drive (HDD) capacity or a memory capacity varying depending on an apparatus model. It is in demand to construct a system to be capable of installing a created application to the plurality of different models. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-305756 discusses a method for changing install contents of one application depending on the remaining amount of a hard disk drive (HDD) at the install destination. As discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-305756, if a free capacity of the HDD is small, the install is controlled to compress and temporarily install the application and, when the free capacity is assured, to decompress the application.